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oak barrel sample ports

Hello all-
I'm looking for a relatively simple and reliable way to install sample ports into oak barrels as to sample prior to blending while minimizing disturbance of the product. Any ideas, or better yet success stories?
cheers
geoff

We've drilled holes in the head of our barrels the size of a stainless steel part that we have off of some other bits in the brewery. It is effectively a stainless 'nail' that we are able to pull out to sample. Be careful drilling holes...we have some that are too tight and some that are too loose, causing them to leak.

What we are thinking of doing on the next go around is to drill a hole and fix a 5/16 stainless tube (using a corny dip tube) into the bottom of the head. We will then be able to put a John Guest on/off valve, using for sampling and also to quickly be able to hook up to pump the beer out when it is ready.

Hey Geoff,
Go with a drilled holed with nails.
Jason Perkins from Allagash shared his expertise with me on this one.

Stainless 1.5 inch 4 d nails. Use a 7/64 drill bit. It is important for the nail and bit size to be exact. We got the nails out of Mcmaster Carr, although I am sure you could get them from a hardware store.

Geoff,
The stainless nail trick is the way to go. That's what I do. Hell, it's what a lot of wineries do. I used a barrel once for three batches with the same nail and same hole with no issue or leak. See you soon.

What we are thinking of doing on the next go around is to drill a hole and fix a 5/16 stainless tube (using a corny dip tube) into the bottom of the head. We will then be able to put a John Guest on/off valve, using for sampling and also to quickly be able to hook up to pump the beer out when it is ready.

Cheers,
Jeff

This is what i do using a corney dip tube in a rubber bung in the bunghole with another barb in the bung to pressurize the barrel for sampling/blending/draining.

Jeff Byrne

12 year pro craft brewer *NOW available for hire...
Auburn, Wa - for now

Exactly Matthew- currently we're doing only traditional "clean" ales but are gearing up to age a flemish red type ale. Id rather not disturb the pellicle. As Ted pointed out as well we have barrels stacked on barrels, our thief won't go into barrels below other barrels. Plus this just overall seems like a method that disturbs the product less. So despite my fear that I'll come in one day and find dozens of nails on the floor and empty barrels, we're going to "install" the nails. Seems far too common not to be reliable.